Tag Archives: black man

I used to watch Scandal on Thursday night. I enjoyed live tweeting as we watched Olivia Pope and her fast talking gladiators right wrongs, but something happened. They stopped righting wrongs and started committing them. My swan song was the episode in which Olivia Pope had an abortion and the music playing in the background was Silent Night the most holy of the Christmas songs. I have not watched since it started the second half of the season, but I did read about last night’s episode. Now Pope is a murderer and there is nothing left to root for. The thrill as well as the fun is gone. Read the linked article which articulates my own sentiments.https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2016/04/08/scandal-keeps-missing-opportunities-to-address-olivia-popes-mental-health/

Tyler Perry has decided to send the Philly kids that were not allowed to swim at the Private club to Disney World. This is a very generous gesture and it will be a special treat for the children. I believe what the club did the children was wrong but I do not want the children to become professional victims. When I first read what happened to the children I was sad and mad. When I saw the first interview I could sense the pain of the children. Their emotions were real and raw, but as the story played out some of the children sounded less raw and more rehearsed. One of my friends saw one of the children interviewed and the child was initially going to say he was hurt but he stopped himself and said what they did was “hurtful.” Children would tend to say something hurt their feelings not a situation was hurtful. The main issue here is did the club discriminate against the chilren, and that needs to be addressed, but the last thing that needs to happen to these kids is for them to be paraded around for economic gain. So again I applaud Perry’s gesture, but hopefully these children will not be victimized a second time by turning them into professional victims.

In Skokie Illlinois two black guys recently tried to open a bank account at Bank of America. The teller thought they looked suspicious so the police were called, and they surrounded the bank and demanded that the men come out. When the men asked why they were told to surrender and they would answer their questions later. Upon surrender it was determined they had no weapons and the police released them and shook their hands. When the men were interviewed by Channel 5 the Chicago NBC affliate the reporter asked one of them did he have a record? He replied yes but that had nothing to do with the incident at the time of the transaction the teller had no idea he had a record. She just saw two black men and leaped to a conclusion. It was racial profiling pure and simple. The Skokie Police released this statement:

On Monday, June 8, 2009, at approximately 10:00 a.m., at 10000 Skokie Blvd., the Bank of America manager contacted the Skokie Police Department regarding two suspicious males walking around inside the bank. The manager stated that upon entry, one male told the other male to tap him three times when he was ready; one male also had what appeared to be an object in his waistband. Skokie police officers responded and established a perimeter around the bank. The suspicious persons exited the bank without incident. They were identified and released without charges. It was determined that no crime had been committed.

Today the Senate passed a non-binding resolution apologizing for slavery. This is a symbolic message because this apology comes with nothing. When slavery was abolished slaves were promised 40 acres and a mule. That never really materialized and what blacks received was legalized discrimination. So today on the eve of Juneteenth the Senate extended an apology. This resolution was sponsored by Sen. Tom Harkin D-Iowa. Harkin’s resolution, co-sponsored by 21 senators, “acknowledges the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality and inhumanity of slavery, and Jim Crow laws,” and “apologizes to African-Americans on behalf of the people of the United States, for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors who suffered under slavery and Jim Crow laws.” Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enacted mostly in the Southern and border states of the United States between the 1870s and 1965 that acted to deny the right to vote and other civil liberties to African-Americans, and to legally segregate them from whites. Harkin said he hopes “all those people and individuals who have had these sorts of personal experiences … will be able to see in this some acknowledgment of what happened to them, an acknowledgment that it was wrong, and an apology for it. It doesn’t fix it, but hopefully it does address it and starts to dig out the wound.” He is right it does not fix it because we can not change the past, but sometimes it is good to simply acknowledge a wrong. Some will say others have been mistreated in this country they too deserve an apology, but black people were the only ones who were enslaved and viewed as property and that is worthy of an official apology, and today we got it. So all I can say is better late then never.

Yesterday I wrote a post about the ugly tone of the McCain/Palin rallies. In some cases people from the crowd have shouted “Kill Him” in reference to Barack Obama. Some commenters questioned this and a couple of them asked what was my source for the claim. I have referenced The Huffington Post and a reader suggested that I might need to look for a less liberal source. Another reader said both candidates have engaged in ugly campaigning. That might be true, but I have yet to hear someone screaming “Kill Him” at an Obama rally. I said all of this as I introduce another source that is also carrying the story: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article4902470.ece

This is a dangerous strategy that McCain/Palin will continue until election day. As the old John McCain said one only engaes in negative campaigning when you don’t have any new ideas. That says it all.